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Reason as the source of the most reliable knowledge.
I should explain a bit here about how knowledge obtained by reason and argument alone has been seen as more reliable than knowledge from the senses. It was not easy to settle whether the earth is round or flat- this is often debated today, even if few people decide it is flat. There have been other questions, such as what are the elementary substances of which the earth is made, and what the sun and moon are made of and how far away they are. It has taken centuries of science to answer these questions. In ancient and mediaeval times there were no definite answers.
By contrast, ancient mathematicians had shown, from a few axioms and using a limited number of rules of inference, that the sum of the 3 angles of a triangle was 2 right angles. This was proved without examining any real triangles; yet on examining real triangles the result is confirmed, in every case. This appeared to show that the most reliable knowledge is obtained by reason, and that it is knowledge about the external world.
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Reason and argument were originally seen as the prime source of reliable knowledge. Plato referred to this as dialectic. In the 18th century Immanuel Kant, having been very impressed with how Isaac Newton described the real world by his theory of gravitation, wrote about how synthetic a priori propositions are possible. A priori means before examining any data; and synthetic means saying more than is merely implied by or contained in the starting premises. Kant viewed Newton's theory as giving definite knowledge about the external world, in the same way as geometry had been thought to do from ancient times.
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As dialectic is said to be an older method than Russell's logistic or analytic method, I will say a bit about it. Plato often refers to dialectic as his own method and as the highest form of knowledge. For Plato dialectic is the method of asking a question, giving an answer, and asking further questions until the matter is solved. Aristotle appears to have had the same meaning for dialectic.
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Originally posted by Anonymous ATS
The latest conspiracy theories is about a classified launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base on August 16 1976. It was a Saturn V rocket and the mission was to investigate a huge spacecraft on the moon.
The astronauts were William Rutledge and Leona Snyder from Bell Laboratories and Alexei Leonov from Soviet Union.
Originally posted by bigfatfurrytexan
I am unsure how this thread grew so large without me seeing it.
However, IF they needed launch locations, there is ample space in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for a SeaLaunch vehicle. Not to mention the far flung missile bases we have (think Kwajelein).
The astronauts are most likely either naval or USAF officers. Perhaps CIA, or DIA as well.
Originally posted by ZeroGhost
How many TRILLION DOLLARS was missing from the U.S. coffers in the last few years? Did not the GAO cite this massive loss with only confused questions?
They are rolling in money, and it IS ours. They just found it, did not tell us in the name of National Security, and are doing what they want with it. BTW, they lost it in the first place and found it in the dark budgets no accounting can ever find.
ZG